“Well, that was incredibly foolish,” Novik said, sounding amazed. He regarded the others. Solvig and Amin appeared genuinely afraid for Jaysn. Clarc and Wolff smirked in amusement. Tamana pursed her lips with professional calm, but anger boiled in her eyes.
After a few moments, Amin got to his hands and knees, crawled to the edge, and leaned his head over the side. “He’s coming back up. He appears okay.”
“For the moment,” Tamana growled.
Thirty seconds later, Jaysn’s head appeared over the ledge, and the rest followed as the platform continued to ascend, stopping in its original position. His arms were folded across his chest in boredom, and he arched one eyebrow at the others. “It’s a lift. Not a particularly fast one, and street level isn’t as exciting as one would hope.”
“Doctor Katsaros, can we please agree that unilaterally interacting with foreign technology without consensus is inherently dangerous and should be refrained from in the future?”
Jaysn frowned. “Disha, first of all, if it’s a zoo and they’re studying us, it’s possible they’re protecting us initially while we adapt to our new environment. Second, we don’t know how much time we have to study this place. They might decide to send us back home at any moment. I, for one, am willing to assume a little risk on an educated hunch if it means saving several hours of discussion.”
“Ultimately, I am responsible for the success of this mission and the safety of everyone on this team. I can’t have you jeopardizing–”
“The ‘mission’ was to study a disk. We’re way off script here, and as far as the team goes, are you going to fire me? Here? I believe we did have something of a consensus, so I acted alone, rather than risk multiple members of the team.”
Tamana considered this for a moment. “Fine, but for the sake of survival, can I ask you to at least adhere to the team organizational structure and consult with me before taking unilateral action. I hate being surprised.” Her words conveyed understanding, but her tone was anything but.
Jaysn merely nodded in respectful agreement. “In the meantime, I invite the rest of you to enter this … city? … whatever it is and explore ground level.” He gestured elaborately toward the lift platform. “Unless we think there was still something to discover in this room?”
Gingerly, the other five scientists, plus Major Wolff, stepped onto the platform with Jaysn. After a few seconds, it began to descend. There was a tense silence among the group, eventually broken by Novik. “The materials in this platform are completely foreign to the scanning technology I have at my disposal. It seems to be the same material as the other structures in this ‘city.’ The mineral composition and reflective properties are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It seems to emit its own light or at least reflects with properties that are foreign to us, as if light works a bit differently here.”
“Our new, modified forms may be seeing the world in a specific spectrum or with vision that matches the visual acuity of the inhabitants.” Tamana offered.
“That makes sense.” Clarc nodded. “It’s almost like reflectivity is a matter of concentration, not physics. It may be a peculiarity of their perception that comes with these new bodies.”
Wolff, who had been lying on his stomach, carefully peering over the edge of the platform at the underside, pushed himself back onto his knees. “I don’t see any means of power or any machinery making this move.”
“You forget, this species made a disk that manipulates atoms and sends information across higher dimensions,” Jaysn said, not taking his eyes off the horizon. “I’m not surprised they have elevators powered by hopes and dreams.”
“I still can’t figure out our bodies, however,” Clarc said. “I don’t seem to feel hungry or thirsty, so did we get created with food in our bellies, or do we no longer need food. My palms are sweating with nervousness at the height, so apparently, my integumentary and nervous systems are functioning as before. Aside from some alterations to my cybernetics, all of my scars, freckles, and skin imperfections have been recreated. Still, Dr. Novik indicates our respiratory and circulatory systems are modified for this environment.”
The platform slowed and came to a silent halt at the base of the conical building at the side of a “street” approximately ten meters wide. It ran in a straight line for several kilometers in both directions between rectangular, octagonal, and triangular towers of varying heights. Novik crossed the street and walked up to the base of an octagonal tower, then slowly walked all the way around its fifty-meter diameter frame. When he emerged from the far side, he quickly returned to the group. “There appears to be no obvious way to enter the structure. I detect no variations in composition at any point. None of my scanning abilities can penetrate the material to see what’s inside.”
Solvig pursed her lips. “Maybe they’re not buildings at all. Maybe this isn’t even a city. We could just be assigning human characteristics to it, the way people are always seeing faces or figures in natural objects.”[2]
“Could they be storage tanks of some sort?” Amin asked.
“Perhaps they are accessed from a subterranean level or something we haven’t seen yet,” Clarc said.
Tamana suddenly turned her head. “What was that?” she asked. The others looked at each other, confused. “Some sort of movement. A flash. It crossed the street about two buildings down.” She pointed behind them. Cautiously, the remaining six walked toward the area Tamana had indicated. “It went this way,” she nodded, pointing to the ‘alley’ between structures to their right.
They rounded the corner. In the middle of the street was what appeared to be a glowing white cloud, approximately half a meter in diameter. It hovered in the air about ten meters away, chest high to a man, and seemed to expand and contract in different directions.
“Well, hello there,” Clarc said, holding both arms out to her side and slowly walking toward it. The cloud appeared to take no notice of her.
“Be careful, doctor,” Tamana said.
Clarc shook her head. “Just trying to determine if it’s alive or not.”
“What if it shows you that it’s alive by attacking you?” Amin asked.
“I find the chances of that to be very unlikely,” Clarc said, still advancing at a steady pace.
Solvig stepped back at the thought. “How can you be so sure?”
“I’ll give you a lecture on animal survival instinct in a minute. I’m a little busy right now.” Clarc slowed her pace, advancing methodically, one step at a time. The cloud made no changes to its behavior and continued to hover in place. Then, when she was approximately five paces away, it darted ten meters further down the alley.
“So, it is aware of you,” Jaysn offered. “How does a cloud of gas see you?”
“It could be a simple reflex. Theoretically, a gaseous entity would sense pressure differentials caused by movement or possibly even sound waves themselves. I’d be careful. It could perceive drastic movement or noise as a threat.”
“Considering the environment, it may not have ever encountered movement or sound before,” Amin offered.
“It’s not changing posture, just moving away,” Clarc said. “I would expect a defensive or aggressive posture if it were feral.”
“Should you continue provoking it, though?” Tamana countered.
“Once is a coincidence. Twice will be convincing.” Clarc nodded, stopping. “I’m showing that I’m aware of it as well, but not changing my stance or posture as I continue to advance. We’re all friends here.” She resumed her slow steps, then added, “I hope.”
Jaysn slowly started down the alley behind Clarc, staying close to the wall and several paces behind. Once again, when she approached within a few steps, the cloud seemed to freeze and then slide away, though this time the distance didn’t seem quite as far. “Is that progress?” Jaysn asked.
Clarc repeated the process of pausing briefly, though this time she dropped her hands closer to her side to a more natural pose. “Remember, if it is alive, certainly it’s never seen anything that looks like us before, and judging by what we’ve seen of this place, we may be the first living things it’s ever seen that aren’t its own kind.”
She slowed her pace further and began walking again. This time, after two paces, the wisp abruptly contracted in on itself and flared in brightness. There was a sudden hissing sound, and a plume of dust blew up directly in front of her. Jaysn noted it seemed almost identical to the motes that had appeared back in the tower before his teammates reassembled. This time, however, the dust formed the shape of a giant serpent, nearly three meters long and a half meter in diameter.
Clarc did her best not to jump, instead taking two rapid steps backward and involuntarily letting out a loud “Whoa!” as the creature hissed and lunged at her defensively, its fangs snapping shut as its head dipped toward her. It then reared back to its original position, raising its head to approximately the height of hers. Jaysn noted that the space where it had struck wouldn’t have hit her, even if she hadn’t moved.
Clarc slowly began to walk backward, not turning her back on the creature. It regarded her, hissing softly, then turned to Jaysn, flicked its tongue once, and dove into the street, disappearing into it with a watery shimmer of concentric waves. Clarc turned and looked at the others, befuddled.
“The street isn’t solid matter?” Amin asked?
“Or that thing isn’t real,” Solvig muttered.
Seconds later, the head reappeared just to Clarc’s right, close enough that she could reach out and touch it if she wanted to. Instead, she calmly continued backing up until she reached the point where Jaysn was standing. At that moment, the serpent dove into the street once again and re-emerged just in front of them.
“That certainly looks like a real snake to me, only I’ve never seen one that big,” Jaysn said, his voice shaking slightly.
“Euenectes murinus or Emerald Anaconda,” Clarc said, not taking her eyes off of it. “Except the eyes are … wrong.”
Jaysn looked at the eyes, unlike the slitted pupils of a snake, these appeared round and pearlescent, almost human.
“So, Emerald Anaconda,” Jaysn said, voice shaking. “Poisonous?”
“It generally prefers to constrict or drown its prey before eating them.”
“That doesn’t include people, does it?”
Clarc arched one eyebrow. “It will eat anything it thinks it can take in a fight. I watched one take down a jaguar once at university.”
“Please don’t tell me they have jaguars here as well.” Jaysn grimaced.
“They shouldn’t have anacondas.”
“Tell him that,” Jaysn said and began walking backward. The serpent made no further advances.
Clarc waited for Jaysn to join the others, then backtracked along the same path he had taken. Once she had rejoined the group at the entrance to the alley, the snake disappeared into the ground.
“That cloud creature left as soon as the serpent appeared,” Lev offered. “It moved much more leisurely than when it was running from you. I don’t think it was concerned by it.”
“Okay, I am thoroughly confused,” Wolff said. “If this is a zoo, how do the zookeepers know about snakes. Did the species evolve on multiple worlds?”
Tamana shook her head and exhaled sharply. “No, certainly not. There are three billion base pairs of molecules in DNA that have evolved over four billion years. The odds of the same conditions and same dominant traits and food chain producing the same species on two different planets are statistically impossible.”
Jaysn shrugged. “So, they must have pulled it from one of our minds. Interesting choice.”
“Symbolic, actually,” Solvig said. “The serpent is a trans-cultural archetype for fear and danger.”
Tamana nodded. “Go on, Doctor.”
“Snake imagery appears in different, unconnected cultures — the Hindu and Buddhist naga, the Greek Rod of Asclepius, in Voodoo and Native American religions. It is often seen as a protector of something sacred, or possibly as a symbol of transformation or change.”
“So, it’s that will-o’-the-wisp thing’s defense mechanism?” Wolff asked.
Clarc shrugged. “It changed briefly before the serpent appeared, but that may have been expectation rather than initiation. Either way, actual anacondas are not typically protective in that way.”
Jaysn turned to Tamana. “So, what now?”
“We need to find some way to communicate that our intentions are not hostile. We only wish to learn about it.”
Jaysn furrowed his eyebrows. “Shouldn’t it know that already? Whoever brought us here is at least able to read our minds to a certain extent, pulling out idealized bodies for us and base imagery like snakes. Wouldn’t they know we’re intelligent and non-hostile?”
“Maybe they are simply xenophobic or have some taboo against contact with outsiders. Maybe it’s considered rude for us to study a species without consent,” Novik said, still looking for any sign of the creature down the alleyway.
“Yes, but if that is the case, why bring us here at all? They could have left us back in the cave,” Jaysn countered.
“I don’t believe isolationism negates compassion. You were dying, after all.”
Clarc shook her head. “I’m the zoologist. That thing is the reason I am out here. I say we keep following the wisp thing in the hopes we can communicate non-belligerence to them, or the snake, or whoever is controlling the snake.”
Tamana stood upright. “As Jaysn pointed out, if they’re watching us, that means they may be judging us. Let’s explore the city further; it may give us a better understanding of the locals and how to communicate with them.”
Jaysn shrugged, then nodded agreement. “Which direction?”
Tamana turned to Solvig, who studied their surroundings for a moment. “Logic would suggest that the wider streets are the most important and would lead to a central point or place of relative importance. We could follow one of them, avoiding alleys and side streets for the time being?”
Wolff shook his head. “Wider streets might also provide little in the way of safety or cover. If we’re not welcome here, we will just be advertising our position to anyone observing.”
Amin laughed nervously. “You really think we can just hide from them? Look at this place?”
“Just trying to contribute ideas,” Wolff smiled.
“It’s settled then. Let’s stick to this wide road until we encounter a wider road,” Tamana said, gesturing to her right.
There were general acknowledgments and agreements, and eventually all seven set off into the city.
#
Jaysn estimated the group had hiked nearly five kilometers. Twice, they crossed streets that seemed more significant than the one they were on, and both times, they opted to follow the new street. Their course seemed to be moving toward a large cluster of objects that the group unofficially began referring to as “downtown” or the “city center.” He had long ago lost any sense of direction and now relied on Novik’s near-perfect recollection of the city layout he had seen upon his arrival.
“Lev,” he said at last, “you’ve apparently got a human body now. Are you feeling any kind of fatigue from the long walk?”
“I can’t say that I am. Though in scanning all of us. While your bodies roughly approximate your former ones internally and externally, my own composition seems to be completely different.”
“Is it synthetic?”
“If these bodies were made by a machine out of our previous information, aren’t we all synthetic at this point?” Clarc noted.
“Good point.” Jaysn nodded.
Novik smiled, “To answer your question, while your bodies, reflexes, and senses are close approximations of human, adapted to this environment, my senses seem to approximate the capabilities of the class three worker drone I was inhabiting at the time I was brought here, and my body is of a completely unrelated composition and made to look human. I’ve made detailed scans for the mission record. I have been wondering if my internal biology is somehow related to that of our ‘hosts.’”
Clarc smiled. “I like the idea of calling them hosts, even if they are rather poor ones.”
Wolff, who had been at the front of the group, froze and held up a hand to shush the conversation. He pointed further up the street, where, approximately fifty meters ahead, at an intersection with another, wider thoroughfare, several of the cloud/wisp entities could be seen crossing from left to right.
Amin looked at the others. “Do you think we can get past them without being attacked by those snake things?”
Tamana thought for a moment. “If it were a defensive fear reaction, they might feel safer traveling in groups compared to being cornered alone in a narrow alley.”
Jaysn shook his head. “It may not have had anything to do with the wisp creature at all. It may have been a warning about staying out of the alley. Either way, we’re not going to learn anything standing around here.”
Tamana shrugged, acknowledging the possibility. “Dr. Clarc, do you have any suggestions?”
“Perhaps we should fan out, not approach them as a group. Then try to merge into the flow of traffic.”
Amin shook his head. “We’ll still stay close enough to each other that we can come to someone’s aid if attacked, right?”
“That would be prudent,” Tamana nodded.
The group cautiously approached the intersection, this time spaced approximately three meters apart. Clarc was first around the corner, staying close to the wall, and falling in step with the wisp creatures. Jaysn followed close behind, mimicking her exact movements. He did not bother checking behind him to see where the others were, as his attention was drawn to a large archway, more than fifty meters high, directly in front of him. It spanned the width of the street and led into one face of a hexagonal structure. He could not make out any details of the interior, which seemed to be another trick of the light in this strange place.
Thus far, the wisp creatures had not appeared at all concerned about the presence of strangers in their midst, and there were no signs of the snake-like creatures. The entire group fell in line and proceeded toward the archway at roughly the same pace.
“It’s some kind of perception filter keeping us from seeing inside. Should I follow them in?” Clarc yelled back to the rest of the group.
“It could be transporting them. We’ve seen crazier things today,” Amin pointed out.
Tamana nodded. “I will leave that up to you, since you have the vantage point,” she yelled toward Clarc. “Though, we should close ranks.”
Clarc signaled acknowledgement and stopped just in front of the archway. The wisp creatures continued to ignore her and continued inside, vanishing as soon as they crossed the threshold.
“Doctor Solvig, am I correct in assuming archways have archeological significance?” Tamana asked, turning to the younger woman.
Solvig nodded. “On Earth, anyway, they’re one of the earliest basic structures and usually reserved for places of importance, such as churches or city entrances. They appear in early Roman and Islamic structures, many Mughal structures in India, the paifang style in China, and even the corbelled archways of ancient Mesoamerica.
“Would that necessarily translate to an alien society, though?”
“Quite possibly,” Amin interjected. “The natural load-bearing design of an arch allows for much larger entrances to be created, which is why they were usually used in places of importance.”
Clarc stood, arms crossed, waiting for a decision about whether to follow or not. Jaysn looked at Tamana expectantly.
“We should probably just send one person to see what we’re dealing with. If it’s a church, I don’t want us to be smote as blasphemers,” Tamana said. Jaysn nodded his agreement and looked over at Clarc, who turned, took a deep breath, and marched straight through the opening, disappearing from sight as soon as she crossed the entrance.
Jaysn studied the others. Tamana seemed mortified that she may have ordered a teammate to her death. She let out a sigh of relief as Clarc walked back through the archway, looking perplexed, and motioning for the others to follow her back inside.
The seven entered a vast open area that seemed oddly larger than the building’s exterior suggested. To Jaysn it felt like being in a cathedral the size of a stadium. Cubes, roughly two meters on each side and colored in a dull gold-brown that emitted light without reflection, moved slowly through the room—some rising from the floor, some moving horizontally through the air, others hanging in a motionless cluster suspended above the ground. The floor was black with a bright white grid of light emanating from it. The grid’s size appeared to match the cubes that floated out of it.
The wisp creatures moved with purpose, Jaysn decided. As each entered, it immediately changed direction and proceeded straight for the center of a particular square on the grid. Inevitably, after a few seconds, the frame of a cube would float up from the floor, then solidify around the wisp before rising slowly into the air, like an amber soap bubble with the wisp inside. At a seemingly random height, each cube stopped its climb and proceeded off in a course either perpendicular or parallel to the entry arch, disappearing through a square opening in the cathedral wall.
“Lev, are you seeing a pattern to the appearance and direction of the cubes?”
“None,” Novik admitted, “but I take your point. The cloud creatures seem to know intuitively where they will appear. I would assume they have some perception that we don’t.”
Wolff shook his head. “You said you had all the abilities of a class five worker drone. That should be able to read just about anything, shouldn’t it?”
“It may be a limitation of my new form, or perhaps an effect of this room.”
Amin shook his head. “I don’t know about you, but I feel very uneasy about being in a strange room, surrounded by strange creatures and machinery. I liked the street better.”
Novik smiled. “You proceed from an assumption of malevolence from our hosts?”
“Can we be sure that they’re not?”
“I haven’t seen any indication that they are aware of us at all, which, frankly, I find more frightening,” Jaysn said.
“I’m fine with not being noticed. I just don’t want to be squashed like a bug for my primitive, human ways.” Amin shuddered a little.
Novik considered for a moment. “I am not so sure an advanced race would hold that against us, however. Obviously, they, too, must have been like us at one point, unless, as you say, they are so far advanced that they think of us as your metaphorical bugs. However, that would seem to imply they have no curiosity or desire to interact with us at all, which saddens me.”
“I don’t know,” Solvig chimed in, “I still talk to my pets, and my plants, even though I know they’re primitive and don’t really know what I’m saying. Nobody has ever questioned me for doing so. It may just be a matter of getting their attention.”
“Let’s stick to being observers and not be so hasty for the time being,” Tamana admonished. “Any idea what we could be witnessing here?”
Jaysn watched the swarm of floating and moving cubes for a moment. “Some kind of transportation hub?”
Solvig shook her head. “It seems a bit inefficient for that. Primitive societies generally have functional road designs, as they tend to build paths around convenient geographical features. Almost every advanced city is built on a logical grid or concentric circle pattern, as technology allows designers to manipulate geography to their needs. This doesn’t appear to be either.”
Wolff shook his head. “Especially since we’ve seen they have pretty good matter teleportation capabilities. Not to mention these cube things are moving considerably slower than the normal pace of the cloud creatures.”
Amin nodded in agreement. “If your theory about the archway holds up, this may be some kind of ritual.”
Clarc scowled. “Do you really think anyone who could create all this is still practicing superstitious rituals? I’m not even sure these wisp creatures are intelligent. Even if they were responsible for creating or controlling that snake creature, it still could be animal reflex.”
“So, we’re not yet convinced that these creatures are the architects of all this?” Jaysn asked.
Tamana nodded. “I tend to agree with Dr. Clarc. It’s possible these wisps may have some sort of mental link that allows them to manipulate matter around us, but the need for shelter, construction, even the lift we encountered, doesn’t impress me as being of much use to vapor-based creatures.”
“We have no idea how old this place is, and without entropy, we have no way of determining how old that disk was. What if they used to have material bodies, but evolved beyond them?” Clarc offered.
Tamana nodded. “Or what if this wisp state is one state of a complex, metamorphic life-cycle?”
“Like a caterpillar/butterfly relationship?” Jaysn asked.
“Exactly. We’ve seen many examples of that on many different worlds,” Tamana said.
Clarc held up a finger. “Yes, but never in an intelligent life-form.”
Jaysn shrugged. “Does that preclude the possibility?”
Novik suddenly interjected, his voice slightly panicked. “I think we have a new problem,” he said. “The number of creatures per second entering the room has approximately doubled every ninety seconds since we entered, and that may only be the beginning.” He nodded toward the archway, which only he could see back through.
Jaysn slowly approached Novik and looked back at the street they had entered from, now completely engulfed by a billowing white mass that was rapidly growing larger. Because of the translucent nature of the creatures and the mirage effect of the argon-rich atmosphere, he had trouble gauging distance, but it was clear they numbered in the thousands and were no more than a few dozen meters away. “It’s a stampede!” He almost chuckled and told everyone to move away from the archway and stand against the wall.
Seconds later, wisp creatures began flooding into the room and spreading out in all directions. At times, the throng was so thick that they overran each other, stacking sometimes as many as four or five tall like a breaking wave on a shore, before inevitably toppling over as they spread out through the room. Through it all, and despite the increasing level of chaos, the room remained eerily silent, with the only persistent sounds being the slightest hiss, no louder than that of a gentle stream.
“If it’s your transportation hub, is this rush hour?” Solvig smiled at Jaysn. Despite the nervousness he felt, the almost sinister gleam in her eye instantly disarmed him.
Amin let out a sharp yelp of surprise. The others turned and saw that he had somehow stepped into the path of several wisp creatures, who now surrounded him. As he frantically tried to brush them off and escape the cloud, he stumbled further away from the group and into the onrush. “Help!” he screamed. “I can’t breathe!”
“Umar!” Jaysn yelled, trying to find a way to reach Amin without touching or disturbing the creatures. “It’s a reflex. You’re just panicking. You don’t need to breathe here, remember?” I
If Amin heard him, he made no indication and continued to flail his arms wildly.
Instantly, Jaysn felt a large hand on his shoulder as Major Wolff gently pushed him back toward the wall and the others before bounding into the cloudy mass. Tamana was behind him, seemingly ready to stop him. Eventually, she hesitated, remembering he wasn’t part of her team.
Amin’s gestures became more frantic, and whether carried by the creatures or by his own design, he was moving faster away from the group. Wolff struggled to make his way through the mass but seemed slow. Jaysn decided that, despite the implications that the creatures were gaseous, they must have at least a partially material component that allowed them to interact with solid matter. He watched as Wolff began shoving wisp creatures out of his way to reach Amin.
“Be careful about touching them!” Clarc shouted, instinctively moving away from the team and toward Wolff and Amin. “You don’t want to risk angering individuals in a herd. They’re going to be a lot braver–” She cut off just as three of the snake creatures appeared behind Wolff. They spread out, attempting to flank him from either side and from behind. This was not a warning. It was a hunt, and the major was completely unaware he was being sized up as prey.
Clarc went into a sprint, dodging wisp creatures along the way and circling the serpent that had taken position directly behind Wolff. Jaysn decided that, in addition to her obvious cybernetic enhancements, she must also have considerably boosted reflexes.
Wolff continued manhandling his way through the crowd, eventually reaching Amin, grabbing him by the arm, and trying to brush, pull, or pry the wisps off of him. He caught sight of the snake approaching from his left, then clocked the other two just as one of the cubes rose from the floor and assembled itself around Amin, himself, and two of the wisps. Jaysn saw Wolff pounding on the walls of the cube as they slowly rose into the air. Suddenly, he stopped, calmly made a halting gesture with his hand, and shook his head.
Clarc, in the meantime, had already closed the distance between herself and the cube. She watched the three serpents dissolve back into the ground as soon as Wolff and Amin’s cube was airborne. With a leap that could not have been achieved by an unaugmented woman of her size, and seeming to test her own limits in the higher gravity, she managed to grab the top of the cube and hung tentatively off the side, now three meters above the ground and still rising. She desperately tried to maintain a grip, kicking and swinging with her legs to boost herself. Jaysn did not realize he was holding his breath until she managed to get one leg to the top of the cube and rolled herself into a crouching position, at which point he gasped a couple of lungfuls of air.
The cube stopped its ascent about five meters straight up and began sliding away from the archway across the giant room. Jaysn instinctively started to follow, but Novik and Tamana reached out, and each grabbed one arm. He fought to break free of their grip, stopping only when he realized he’d already lost the cube in the mirage-like haze of his distant vision. Not that it mattered. All of the cubes were passing through square portals in the distant walls, and judging by their speed, the three would have long-since departed.
